JERUSALEM, Nov 24: Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told parliament on Monday that the militant group Hezbollah is three times stronger now than it was during the 2006 Lebanon war.

“The firepower of Hezbollah has grown threefold since the Second Lebanon War,” he told MPs.

“It has missiles that can reach the towns of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona (in southern Israel more than 200 kms from the Lebanese border). Today Hezbollah has 42,000 missiles.” Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at communities across northern Israel during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006, killing more than 40 civilians and sending another million fleeing south.

Barak renewed warnings issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this year that in any new war Israel would take tougher action against civilian infrastructure than it did in 2006, when a power station and Beirut airport were hit and in all more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

“The integration of Hezbollah into the Lebanese state exposes Lebanon and its infrastructure to in-depth attacks in the event of a new conflict,” he said, referring to the formation earlier this year of a national unity government in Beirut that includes Hezbollah and its allies.

The Israeli defence minister also renewed his support for an extension of the six-month Gaza truce with the Islamist Hamas movement that went into force on June 19.

“I do not regret any of the months of calm,” he told MPs.

“In the months preceding the entry into the force of the truce, we were recording as many as 500 mortar or rocket attacks a month in southern Israel against just a dozen in the months since the truce.”

Barak rejected calls by cabinet colleagues, including Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon and Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai, for a major ground offensive into Gaza to topple the Hamas administration there.

“To all the warmongerers I say: You have nothing to teach me about war or peace or my duties,” said Barak, a reserve general and former army chief.

“I am defence minister, not war minister, and my job is to maintain as far as possible the maximum of security for Israeli citizens.

“In any case, if a pre-emptive operation proves necessary, the army will act.” Barak also reiterated Israel’s refusal to rule out any option to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“We have said that Israel will leave no option off the table and we advise others to do the same,” the minister told MPs.

“We think what we say but I would advise that we should not elaborate, particularly at the moment, as it would do nothing but harm to Israel.”

Israel and its US ally suspect Iran of seeking to develop an atomic bomb under cover of its civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran strongly denies.—AFP